18 TRAVEL + INDULGENCE THE WEEKEND AUSTRALIAN, NOVEMBER 17-18, 2018theaustralian.com.au/travel

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TRUE COURSE OF HISTORYA Cook’s look at a maritime mythPENNY HUNTER

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To celebrate its 35th year, plus the 250thanniversary of Cook’s Endeavour voyage,Coral Expeditions will conduct its first circumnavigation of Australia in 2020. Departing Darwin in November, the new120-passenger Coral Adventurer will embark on the epic 60-night voyage, calling at 35 historic places that shapedAustralia from a maritime perspective, plus other spots of aquatic, natural andcultural interest. Breaking up the time spent at sea are overnight stops in Fremantle, Adelaide, Hobart, Sydney andCairns. And as a Christmas treat, guestswill take a charter flight from Cairns to Uluru, a destination that could hardly befurther from the ocean. There’ll also beshore excursions at Busselton, WesternAustralia, for a winemakers’ dinner at Leeuwin Estate, and a sail on the square-rigger James Craig on Sydney Harbour.The cruise also marks the 200th year ofPhilip Parker King’s exploration of the Kimberley, a region that is a cornerstonein Coral Expedition’s itineraries. BrokenBay, Botany Bay and 1770 are among thesignificant stops for Cook-ophiles. Andyes, a visit to Pennefather River will ensure Willem Janszoon gets his time inthe spotlight, too. From $38,860 a person, twin-share.

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The Duyfken replica and authentic rigging,above; Captain Gary Wilson, above left;

explorer Willem Janszoon, below

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Gary Wilson can get a little hotunder the well-starched collar ofhis captain’s uniform when itcomes to Australia’s maritime his-

tory, especially when he reads the much trot-ted-out “fact” taught to thousands of primaryschool children that Captain James Cook dis-covered Australia.

Although Wilson acknowledges Cook wasa tremendous seaman who made remarkablevoyages and contributed greatly to the know-ledge of the world, he feels the mythology hastaken over. And as the 250th anniversary ofCook’s 1770 voyage on the Endeavour ap-proaches, he fears the myth-making is gather-ing steam, as it did in 1970 for the 200thanniversary. In his opinion, another seafarer’sname should be on people’s lips.

“We should talk about Willem Janszoonand [his ship] Duyfken in the same terms aswe do Cook,” says Wilson, who has spent thepast seven years at the helm of ships operatedby cruise line Coral Expeditions. Willemwho? That would be the first European re-corded to set foot on Australian soil, in 1606,at what is now known as Pennefather Riveron the western shore of Cape York in farnorth Queensland.

Wilson has spent half his career on squareriggers and has a particular soft spot for Duyf-ken, which means Little Dove, and the Dutchmariner who charted more than 300km ofAustralia’s coastline, unaware he was map-ping a whole new continent separated fromPapua New Guinea by Torres Strait. In 2000,Wilson sailed on a replica of Janszoon’s shipas first mate from Fremantle to Indonesia’sBanda Islands where Janszoon called as partof the Dutch East India Company’s quest todominate the spice trade. A re-enactment ofhis voyage south to the Pennefather was cen-tral to the trip.

Then in 2002, as master (the correct term,he says, rather than captain), Wilson took thereplica on a voyage commemorating the400th anniversary of the formation of theDutch East India Company, visiting 35 portsen route to and from The Netherlands. In2006 he sailed as master again on a passagecelebrating the 400th anniversary of Jans-zoon’s pioneering voyage. In total, he spentmore than three years from 2000 to 2012 onthe diminutive Duyfken.

The 24m-long replica scout ship was con-ceived in Fremantle by an entrepreneurialcommunity group passionate about maritimehistory. They established the charitable Duyf-ken 1606 Replica Foundation with the goal ofbuilding a ship to help dispel the myths about

While the Dutch replica scrapes by on fund-ing of about $300,000 a year, Endeavour,moored at the Australian National MaritimeMuseum in Sydney, receives about $1 million.

Despite Wilson’s desire to set the recordstraight, he’s approaching the 250th anniver-sary of the British explorer’s voyage withsome excitement. To mark Cook’s achieve-ments and a number of other historical mile-stones, Coral Expeditions is embarking on itsfirst circumnavigation of Australia (see Moreto the Story). Wilson, who came up with theidea, describes it as a ground-breaking voy-age. “I thought it would be a good chance totell a story around all of Australia’s maritimehistory,” he says. “Cook is certainly a big partof that … so there will be a focus on his En-deavour voyage. But I want to tell the wholehistory, including pre-history, indigenous,European explorers, beginning with Janszoon[and] trading, whaling, yachting, World War Iand World War II and even recent history. Itis going to be a big one.”■ duyfken.com■ coralexpeditions.com

Cook, as well as Dirk Hartog, a Janszoon con-temporary who has also been credited withdiscovering our great southern land. The shipwas built at a cost of $3.7 million, madewith European oak from Latviausing traditional methods such asbending the hull planks overfire; the sails and rig were fash-ioned from natural hemp andflax. So authentic were theconstruction techniques thatwhen the replica came withincooee of a US aircraft carrier in2007, it failed to register on theradar.

Wilson, who has also enjoyed astint in command of the replica of Cook’sEndeavour, regales passengers on Coral Ex-pedition’s cruises with tales of his seafaringadventures, such as when he and his crewtaunted Endeavour by sailing the nimble

Duyfken a full lap around the larger ship, anact considered the ultimate insult for a mari-ner. And when they outmanoeuvred and out-

gunned patrol boat HMAS Gladstone,launching giant water balloons

with deadly accuracy.These days, Duyfken has

been spending the winter inFremantle, where this year ithas had 4000 Year 4 school-children clambering aboard aspart of a growing education

program. Last month, the shiprelocated north to Perth for

summer twilight sails on the SwanRiver. Duyfken Foundation chief

executive Peter Bowman, who recallschildhood history lessons dominated by therevered British explorer, sees both enterprisesas opportunities to give Janszoon his due.They are also crucial to the ship’s survival.

This feature was first published in The Weekend Australian's Travel + Indulgence on November 17 and is reproduced with permission.